Wedding Blog

(Image from mywedding.com)

On this Memorial Day, I ran a ton of errands and thought a little about the Coconut wedding motto. No, we’re not selling a How-To Guide, don’t worry! But while it’s great to read about pretty things and believe me I do love it too, sometimes it’s good to know what’s behind all of it. You dig?

So, after my dress post I started thinking that I probably should have told you about our budget. In my very first post I mentioned a condensed budget, and then I post about buying a Vera Wang so I can understand if some are confused, but let me take this opportunity to clarify and maybe inspire others to go for the gusto!

Mr. Coconut and I are paying for half of our wedding. Mama and Papa Coconut will be paying for the other half and Mr. Coconut’s parents will be sharing the rehearsal dinner expenses. For the majority of the time, we’ve been graduate students living on student loans save for 3 months where I’ll be working as an attorney. The budget was a hard thing given Mr. Coconut’s debt-kills attitude, but eventually we arrived at a number. That number was $15,000. A lot of money in Mr. Coconut’s opinion. Not a lot in mine. Ultimately, our wedding (including the honeymoon) will end up costing $20,000. So yes, we broke our budget considerably, but we have no regrets!

What were our splurges? Well, for one the dress. I budgeted $1,500, and we ended up spending $1,734.00 (not including alterations). Another is our chair rental. The city has these unfortunate black plastic chairs, so while our venue was a steal, having to rent things like chairs can be a big expense.

Then there were some vendors we didn’t expect at all. We hired a lighting designer that cost $500 including delivery & set up. Our linens were special ordered because our caterer did not have linens to fit long banquet tables.

Where did we save? We saved a considerable amount on our photographer. Well, let me clarify: in comparison to the photographers I obsessed over for months who cost upwards of $3,000, we saved a great amount. Also, our videographer. We hired them for a crazy low cost because it wasn’t a huge priority. Our florist budget is on the lower end, and our stationery budget is quite low because it’s mostly DIY. We also saved on the venue and liquor costs. Our Day-of-Coordinator is extremely affordable because she’s just starting her business. Instead of a string quartet that costs $700, we’ve hired a solo guitarist for $375. Also, my best friend’s parents gave us their timeshare for a week to use for our honeymoon.

I know that it’s common sense to splurge on your priorities and save in other areas, but sometimes that requires some out of the box thinking! For instance, when I mentioned the lighting designer to Mr. Coconut, I about flipped his switch. Once I explained the importance and presented him with a reasonable quote, we were able to come to a compromise. I guess all of this money talk is just to say, if something sounds expensive go ahead and look for quotes before you count it out completely. After all, I was able to find a Vera Wang gown at half the retail price!